1. At the bookstore last night a man asked an employee if they had something, I missed what the item actually was, but it was something rare, one-of-a-kind. The employee shook his head and said, "I'm so sorry, someone just came in and bought it as a gift for her husband." And the man looked at him for a second before responding, slowly, "Wait…what did she look like?" The employee blushed, realizing what he had done, and tried backtracking, saying that maybe he was mistaken, maybe it wasn't really a gift for a husband, and we all laughed, and another customer said "Just try to act surprised," and we [...]

Yesterday, the anger in Ferguson spiked after the police chief came forward with his continued refusal to release the name of the officer who shot Mike Brown. "The officer required protection after numerous death threats had been made," he said; in the meantime the nightmarishly militarized police force keeps their heavy firearms trained Most Dangerous Game-closely on the demonstrators who more than anything just want someone to be held accountable for killing an unarmed kid.

There have been 12 coups in recent history in Thailand. But the latest – three weeks ago – was the first in the social media age. The military rulers now in charge are monitoring social media closely – meaning those who oppose the new regime have had to get inventive.

Sandwiches are not a particularly Thai food, but they've become very important in Thailand in the past few days. With political gatherings of more than five people banned, "sandwich parties" – organised via social media – have taken off. The first of these took place at Kasetsart University in Bangkok on 6 June.

Two weeks ago, my social media feeds were rife with news about Michael Brown's murder in Ferguson. Every night, for too many nights, I sat glued to my computer, watching the livestreams of demonstrations, reading the tweets by the activists and journalists on the scene, listening to a broken city that wanted to capture the world's attention.

We were enraptured: the New Yorker dedicated a cover to it, #iftheygunnedmedown trended on Twitter for days, Lauryn Hill put out a new song dedicated to Ferguson. Though coverage is quieting down, the upheaval is not yet close to resolution. A refresher: Darren Wilson is still in hiding, [...]

The news out of Ferguson, Mo. is dizzying this morning. The FBI has taken over the investigation into the death of Mike Brown; the police story ("Brown pushed the officer back into the car, then entered the vehicle as the two men struggled over the officer’s gun") continues to sound one type of way, while the eyewitness account ("the officer slammed his brakes and threw his truck in reverse, nearly hitting them… [...]

As we wake up to news of more arrests and another tense night of protests in Ferguson, Jia's beautiful and honest piece on the difference between ALS Ice Bucket Challenges and what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri in Timeaddresses the difference in our responses via social media:

For both social media movements, sharing implies responsibility. We are complicit, by our inaction, in the lack of a working cure. But the tacit acknowledgment that there is blame to be shared and apportioned in Ferguson cuts much deeper and stops right at a telling, crucial boundary. We can’t call our friends to action on a target that remains [...]

Some things that middle-aged white Detroit shooter Theodore Wafer has said at his trial for the murder of unarmed black 19-year-old Renisha McBride: "I shot in fear," "I shot on purpose," "It was a threat, a threat that was coming in my house," "I needed to find out what was going on," "I didn't want to cower in my house," "I didn't want to be a victim." His only possible defense against the murder charge requires him to prove that the presence of a drunk, distressed teenager made him legitimately fear for his life.